maiakobabe 's review for:

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman

5.0

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A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century is the best medieval history book I have ever read, and just an amazing book overall. Tuchman explores the 14th century focusing on the life of one extraordinary man: Enguerrand Coucy (1340-1397), the 7th and last lord of the Coucy estates in Picardy France. Coucy lived through years of the Black Plague, The Hundred Years War, the Papal Schism, the Jacquerie revolts in France, the liberation of Switzerland and the advance of the Ottoman empire. He was taken as a prisoner of war by the English, only to marry King Edward's favorite spoiled daughter, Isabella. He was equal parts a warrior and a diplomat, a man valued for both his words and his actions. His story- and the story of the 14th century- is a captivating one.